Aquilino Boyd

Panama has sent former Foreign Minister Aquilino Boyd to Washington as a special ambassador in an attempt to ease the tensions that have brought the Reagan Administration close to confrontation with Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, Panama's military strongman. Boyd's arrival over the weekend came as a surprise to State Department officials, who said Sunday that they did not know he was here.

Panama has sent former Foreign Minister Aquilino Boyd to Washington as a special ambassador in an attempt to ease the tensions that have brought the Reagan Administration close to confrontation with Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, Panama's military strongman. Boyd's arrival over the weekend came as a surprise to State Department officials, who said Sunday that they did not know he was here.

The Reagan Administration, escalating pressure on Panama to reduce military influence in governing the country, has suspended a $26-million aid program and told American diplomats to shun the powerful Panamanian defense chief, U.S. officials said Thursday. The moves were the latest in an effort to show U.S. dissatisfaction with the behind-the-scenes rule of Panamanian Gen. Manuel A.

An official U.S. delegation of election observers, dispatched by President Bush to monitor Panama's elections today, landed at this U.S. air base Saturday and set the stage for a potential confrontation with the Panamanian government over their presence in the country. Rep. John Murtha, (D-Pa.), the head of the delegation, told reporters in a brief news conference on the air base tarmac that the 21-member group arrived with "the appropriate documents necessary to get into the country."

Eric A. Delvalle, reportedly on the brink of resigning as Panama's "president in exile," met Thursday with President Reagan and President-elect George Bush, who gave him a pep talk and assured him that the United States stands firm in its resolve to oust strongman Manuel A. Noriega. However, they offered no new plans for accomplishing the task. Instead, the two men sought to portray U.S. policy as effective and consistent as Reagan leaves office and Bush prepares to assume the presidency.

A special envoy of the Panamanian government met Monday with Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams in an effort to calm the furor over a mob attack on the U.S. Embassy in Panama City last week, State Department officials said. Veteran diplomat Aquilino Boyd, a former ambassador to Washington, met for an hour with Abrams. He also plans to see other Administration officials and congressional leaders this week.

The government of Panama kept schools closed Monday but otherwise, Panama City returned to normal as both sides in the country's political conflict took stock of the last month's turmoil. Shortly after midnight, the Panama Defense Forces retired from the streets of the city where they had been guarding against a recurrence of last Friday's powerful anti-government demonstrations. Banks and government offices were reopened.

There seems little doubt about the outcome of Sunday's national elections. Carlos Duque will suffer a crushing defeat, according to nearly all public opinion polls, yet he will go on to be declared Panama's next president. If it seems odd that a man who is trailing by at least a 2-1 margin in the polls just three days before the vote--and is counted out by nearly all independent experts--should be the overwhelming favorite to win, "you need to remember," one diplomat says, "that this is, after all, Panama."